A Laguna Beach businessman who embezzled nearly $6 million from the trusts of his wealthy clients was sentenced to four years in federal prison and ordered to pay about $5.9 million in restitution on Monday, Oct. 6, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

David Robert McDonnell, 75, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in August 2024.

McDonnell ran his business, McDonnell Business Services from 2018 to 2024. Wealthy clients would hire him as the executor of their wills. Instead of managing clients’ trusts, assets and correctly selling assets and distributing funds to beneficiaries as he was hired to do, McDonnell liquidated the assets and put funds into his own accounts, prosecutors said.

He took $5.9 million from four different trusts over the years. In one instance in 2020, McDonnell wrote a check for $300,000, from the trust of a victim to his own account,  prosecutors said.

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